The Star of the Show Is a No-Show - Now What?
I am on vacation. No heavy duty leadership thought piece today – just a fun story.
Last week, I was scheduled to give a talk at Harvard Business School on making your board of directors into a value accelerator for your company. As part of the event, Joe Campanelli, President of Needham Bank, was scheduled to share his experience stepping up the quality of his board before going public.
The morning of the event, Joe told us that he was sick and could not do the event. After three hours of back and forth, we decided to cancel the event and reschedule. The food was ordered and people would show up who did not read their email cancellation notice. But postponing to another time was the best thing to do.
Here is the story of an earlier event where I was standing on the stage to introduce the star performer and he didn’t show. Now what?
David Gergen worked as an advisor in the White House to four US Presidents. He wrote a book entitled Eyewitness to Power outlining leadership lessons learned. He was constantly on CNN and other news channels. After leaving the White House, David joined the faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. I asked him to speak to the Harvard Business School alumni community following Barack Obama’s second election.
On the night of his talk, we got a message from his office saying that he was running late and hoped to be there by 7 PM – the start of the speaking program. By 7:15, he was not there. 225 people were sitting in a large amphitheater lecture hall at HBS that seats about 175. People were on the floor and stairways.
I had to say and do something! I stood in the well of the amphitheater and explained that David Gergen was “running late.” I said that we had come together that evening to learn about working with a leader at the very top. I asked if anyone in the audience had worked for a US President.
To my surprise, no one raised their hand. Then someone raised their hand and said they worked with Pres. Carter after he left the White House. I asked what working with Carter was like.
I then asked who had worked with or for another very high level leader other than a US President. Several hands went up and a discussion started about those experiences. Quickly, I was leading a dynamic and interesting conversation about top level leadership among 225 people jammed into the auditorium.
About 7:30, David Gergen arrived. I was actually disappointed. The conversation within the audience about what we could learn from each other stopped. David was a wonderful speaker with great insights about the last election – OK, nothing about leadership lessons learned from four Presidents.
At 7 PM, I said, “Yikes! David is not here. What do I do now?” By 7:30 I was saying, “We created something wonderful and valuable, I don’t want to stop!”
If you are on the stage to introduce the star and the star is a no-show, be creative. Find what is wonderful in the audience and in you.
On the Beach
I have given myself permission – sort of – to take some vacation time. I am in Coconut Grove which is part of Miami.
I will have beach time while I am here. I hope you enjoy this South Beach scene.
